One of principal problems facing telephone companies, is the difficulty of increasing the number of telecommunication network circuits without increasing the size of the terminating and switch facilities. Economy of space is very important.
Additionally, maintaining versatility and the ability to patch and repair circuits is also important. With more and more switching being done electronically, the consequences of equipment failure becomes more serious. If a single electronic switching equipment fails, thousands of telecommunication circuits may be interrupted and adversely affected. Consequently there is a need to provide patch and rerouting access to the network circuits while at the same time reducing the panel space and costs required to provide such service.
At the present time, ADC Telecommunications Inc. of Minneapolis, Minn. provides a digital interface patch panel called "Digital Distribution Point" or "DDP" capable of terminating and providing patch access to 128 circuits on a standard 23 inch rack shelf within a vertical space of 6 inches of vertical space on the rack shelf. To obtain patch access to a circuit, the DDP panel utilizes a special connector block that initializes a special "access jack card". Such an access patch panel, with the special "access jack card", is still rather expensive, even though it may be less expensive than a typical digital cross-connect jack panel.
One of the principal objects and advantages of this invention is to provide a unique low frequency telecommunication digital network interface patch panel that increases the number (density) of network circuits that may be terminated and patch accessed within a limited space that is less costly than previous digital interface patch panels.
An additional object and advantage of this invention is to provide a unique low frequency telecommunication digital network interface patch panel having the ability to handle up to 168 circuits on a standard 23 inch rack shelf within a vertical panel space of 31/2 inches.
A further object and advantage of this invention is to provide a unique low frequency telecommunication digital network interface patch panel that is less expensive providing a low cost alternative to conventional digital cross-connect jack panels.
These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent upon reading and understanding the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment.